If he is not provided with the pre-trial statements, the 12 teenagers charged in connection with the now viral beating and robbery of an American visitor at Savvy on the Bay will be given bail.
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“You ain’t got to say nothing, if I don’t get nothing,” Chief Magistrate Douglas Frederick told the attorneys and the accused. “Just bring your sureties.”
This was his warning when the 12 reappeared in the District “A” Magistrates’ Court yesterday.
“I would really like to know where the truth lies and to do that, I need the pre-trial,” he said.
“I want to see the CCTV footage. I want to be able to make my assessment and to be able to say, ‘Don’t hold this man anymore because it will be an injustice to hold this man’ or ‘hold this man because it looks as though he has a case to answer’.
“I want to be able to do that because the public demands that is what should be done, and it should be done quickly because the public was shocked by this. Anybody who denies that the public was shocked is not living in Barbados,” he said.
Kenavar Antwan Charles, 18, a tiler, of 2nd Avenue, Nurse Land, Tweedside Road; Xavier Xalico Joseph, 19, a general worker, of Cave Hill; Joshua Greg Belgrave, 21, of St Hill Road, Carrington Village; Addagio Marlon Abshadia Bostic, 18, of Laynes Gap, Martindales Road; Leonardo Richardo Allsopp, 26, of Grassfield Gap, Stevenson Road, Delamere Land; Chad Seon Codrington, 18, of Licorish Village, My Lord’s Hill; Donte Ricardo Sealy, 18, of Murrell Road, Carrington Village; Rashad Alexander Williams, 18, of Buckingham Road, Bank Hall – all in St Michael; Seth Ethan Griffith, 23, of no fixed place of abode; Amari Keshon Gilkes, 17, of Bridgefield, St Thomas; and two 16-year-olds, face four charges relating to the incident.
All charged
They are all charged that being present together with other people on May 17 this year, they used unlawful violence and their conduct, taken together, would cause a person of reasonable firmness present at the scene to fear for their personal safety.
The 12 are also accused of, but are not required to plead to, the charge that with intent to maim, disfigure or disable Darin Sisco, they did serious bodily harm to him; that they robbed him of two chains and a cellphone, and that they robbed Larraine Sisco of a cellphone, all on May 17.
They are all on remand. Yesterday prosecutor Sergeant Victoria Leacock said the prosecution was not yet in possession of the file.
“It is almost completed. There are 12 police officers and nine of the statements have been submitted. So only three are outstanding,” she said.
“Then the file has to be vetted before it comes to us. So we have been working expeditiously on the matter,” she added.
The prosecutor, in maintaining her objection to bail, said the only thing that changed was that the complainant had been allowed, by doctors, to return home. He had undergone a further surgery there and was recovering.
No release
Chief Magistrate Frederick explained he opted not to release the accused, on the last occasion, because of the Crop Over season.
However, he said he had urged the prosecution to furnish the attorneys and the court with disclosure.
“One thing that cannot be underscored enough is that the prosecution has said this case involves a gratuitous amount of violence, that it involves a serious shock to society that the society has not really been able to recover from. It also involves a number of young people.”
The Chief Magistrate Frederick said while attorneys for the accused had been given partial disclosure, he had not received any.
“I have not seen those statements because I wanted to know if there was at least a possible case against all or any of these persons.
“I had urged the prosecution if there wasn’t any case against any particular accused, then they should be frank and fair with us, so that we do not create an injustice by holding somebody who we have no evidence against. That was the purpose of asking them to get this disclosure,” he noted.
He stressed that prosecutor Leacock “has done all that she can do. She has sought information but she hasn’t given us a timeline.
Should be easier
“But in as much as they have gotten the statements from the complainants, persons who have gone overseas, it should be easier to get the police officers’ statements, so that we can see what case they have against each of these individuals, so we can do what is necessary so as to not create an injustice. I would like to know where the truth lies in all of these allegations and the only way to find out is to get the pretrial,” he said.
“So I need the pre-trial. I need it. I need to be able to look at the file, to read it and to dissect it, and to say, ‘Look, it makes no sense holding this fellow because you ain’t got no case against him, but you see this fellow here, you got a serious case against him’. I want to be able to do that,” Chief Magistrate Frederick declared.
Leacock then said she would continue to urge personnel to prepare the file.
“They did indicate that statements should have been produced [yesterday]. As I said, nine of the statements have been produced and we are hoping that the rest would have been produced by [yesterday],” she said, adding the investigators should be commended for the speedy work they had done so far.
“We know this is not the norm,” she said.
Attorneys Shadia Simpson, Rasheed Belgrave, Sade Harris and Reco Blackman, who represented a number of the accused, had all pleaded for bail for their clients.
Simpson said she had been served with partial disclosure but the statements did not link her clients to the offences.
All the attorneys suggested their clients could be released with a variety of conditions which would ensure their attendance at court.
In the end, Chief Magistrate Frederick remanded the 12 back to Dodds Prison until September 7.
“If I don’t have anything, I have to give them bail,” he said. (HLE)